Recap: Nashville vs. Chicago

Brandon Saad had one goal and an assist for the Blackhawks, who have won six in a row. Scott Darling made 32 saves.

Chicago moved ahead of Nashville for the Central Division lead.

"We're excited that we've put ourselves in the spot we were hoping to be after 20 games, but we shouldn't be satisfied," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We should be looking to improve off of these levels, which will make us a good team."

Colin Wilson scored the lone goal for the Predators, who fell to 11-2-1 at home this season. Pekka Rinne stopped 28-of-30 shots.

Saad scored from the left circle at 14:53 of the first period.

Hossa gave Chicago a 2-0 lead at 2:48 of the middle stanza. Saad carried the puck down the right side and made a great backhand pass to Hossa, who pushed the disc across the goal line.

Wilson put Nashville on the board 34 seconds into the third. His shot from the top of the left circle beat traffic in front and got past Darling.

Hossa scored an empty-net goal with 1:11 remaining to make it 3-1.

"You're going to look at tonight's game and break down the stats," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "The shots are the same, the chances are the same and the shots at the net are the same. They got one more than we did. We move forward from here and get ready for the next one."

Game Notes

Chicago started a four-game road trip on Saturday ... Nashville defenseman
Anton Volchenkov missed the game because of a lower-body injury ... Chicago
defenseman Klas Dahlbeck made his NHL debut.